My girlfriend is from a Jehovah's Witness family. There's A LOT of fucked up things in that religion, much more so than other religions.
- You're not allowed to associate yourselves with non Jehovah's Witness people, if at all possible. Basically, outside of any situations that make avoiding non-JW's an impossibility (work, school, etc) - you're not supposed to make a conscientious effort to befriend, associate or date non-JW's.
- They're REALLY big about public shaming. If you do something the church doesn't agree with, they will publicly air it - if not directly then heavily hinted at / implied - and you will be shunned by other JW's.
- If you break any rules, there's the possibility of being disfellowshipped. Meaning that you JW's are no longer supposed to interact with you. If your child is disfellowshipped for example, you're obligated to shun them. My girlfriend was kicked out of the house at 16, and sent to an Aunt's house after being disfellowshipped. And her parents didn't talk to her at all, and they still don't
- Physical abuse, and pedophilia are a HUGE problem with the JW church. So I suppose that's not so different from the Catholic church.
- They literally push for JW's not to pursue higher education, but instead, to pursue a higher education in the ways of the religion / church. Because what better education is there than God's teachings? It's by far the least educated religion I believe.
- The basis of the religion is literally isolating one's self from the world, which the church teaches is filled with 'worldly' things that will tempt you away from God's teachings. They discourage independent thinking in a BIG way.
- Opposite sexes are not allowed to be with one another without a chaperone, unless they are married.
- When a JW woman handles any responsibility that should be handled by a man, such as organizing groups for their preaching work, she needs to wear a head covering. They're do this in an act of submission, to show that they're not taking on duties reserved for men.
- You shouldn't accept a blood transfusion, even if death is a possibility. My girlfriend literally had a card on her, which she had no control over as a minor, saying not to give her a blood transfusion.
I just wanted to address this post and clarify some of the points you raised. I feel like I can do this since I am baptized as one of Jehovah's witnesses, but I have distance myself for almost a year now. Regarding your first point: this is not the entire truth. You can have associates in the "world", but you're​not supposed to become close with them. This is because of literal interpretation of Scripture in which God's people wouldn't be a part of the world. So having close friends who are non-believers can taint your faith. I can understand the thought process because it's what caused me to become very critical. My friends in high school and college always challenged me which in turn made me challenge my beliefs. But, you can have associates; it's literally unavoidable if you are law abiding and work to support a family.
Public shaming is absolutely false. Full stop. If a person gets disfellowshipped, the reasons for it remains secret unless someone besides the elders reveal what happened. In fact, I tried to pry information regarding what happened to one person and the elder told me it stays private. He said that he doesn't even tell his wife when and what occurs during these meetings.
Disfellowshipping is something I do not agree with at all, and it's a topic that infuriated me when it was discussed at a Sunday meeting last year, I believe. It's​ essentially hypocritical that Jehovah, a God whom we are taught that his supreme quality is love, would enact a policy which is down right cruel. However, Disfellowshipping is done as a last resort as the elders do not want to lose people in the organization. What they will always try is to reprove the person. It essentially is discipline by revoking certain "privileges" in the congregation. Although this really only applies to brothers since women have next to zero responsibilities within the congregation.
I can attest to the cover up of sexual assault. Within my congregation a older sister was being harassed by one of the elders. The only reason I knew about was because she told me herself while out in the ministry. She would tell me how she complained and the elders did nothing and one even suggested that
she should switch congregations. Finally her son, who is not, Witness, told her to file a restraining order on the elder. I asked her why is that happening, and she simply told me that her trust is in Jehovah, and that he is in control, not men. I'm not sure what became of the incident since I haven't shown myself to anyone in the congregation for close to a year now. If that is happening in that congregation-where the elders were very, very strict- I can only imagine it happening elsewhere so I will not deny that at all.
The higher education ordeal is another thing that really grinds my gears. I felt that I was being subtlety attack for attending college by the organization through the watchtower which heavily discouraged it. I suspect that the governing body knows that college makes people incredibly critical and people are simply exposed to so many things that can cause them to leave. I know that college is when I finally had the ability to solidify what I believed in through reason, although doubt had already set in.
Women having to place head scarfs seems incredibly asinine to me. And the fact of the manner is that it's really a last resort option; they will even take a young teenage boy who is not baptized to take the lead in the ministry or any other activity that requires men. They made me do it when I was 14. What happened was that the older women basically backseat modded the entire way and I was a figure head. How can God relegate woman to such inferiority if he created her to be a "helper." It's incredibly sexist and it's something I cannot agree with or overlook.
Blood transfusion is what it is; a literal interpretation of Scripture which says you shall not take in blood. Since the fear/love of God supersedes all of your beliefs, you will follow it. It's believed that you will remain in God's memory should you die from not receiving blood.
So this is an incredibly long post but I thought it was important to give some clarity to your post and others too. Disfellowshipping hit hard for me because I simple do not want to be a Witness anymore, but if I leave I will be disfellowshipped. Ordinarily I wouldn't care but my mom raised me and my two siblings as witnesses. I am the only one who is baptized and it would break her heart if I got disfellowshipped. She is a single mother who really put her trust in Jehovah when my father left her with us. So I only remain because I care about her feelings. Disfellowshipping is simply a way to guilt trip a person to return to the organization.
Well, that's my two cents anyway.